THE AMAZING WORLD OF KangaROOS SNEAKERS!

NUTTY IDEAS

In doing so, Gamm proved the adage that necessity is the mofo of all invention. Putting his money where his jogging feet were, he methodically developed a nifty design for an athletic shoe that featured a small zippered compartment, just like the pouch of an Australian kangaroo.

About that time, lightbulbs were going off! Gamm had a vision of the future as well as a strikingly peculiar name for his brand and the timing couldn’t have been better. The United States was in the grip of a fitness craze, thanks largely to The Complete Book of Running by author Jim Fixx. Americans were soon jogging as if their lives depended on it and in Fixx’s case, it was doubly true as he tragically and rather ironically died of a heart attack in 1984.

The athletic footwear industry is founded on nutty ideas and brilliantly conceived innovations, many of which could also be considered gimmicks of dubious scientific merit. All the same, nothing sells like a well-timed zeitgeist defining widget. Almost every sports brand has one. Nike helped us walk on visible Air, Reebok turned up the volume with their giant Pumps and adidas has... Climacool! Even the ill-fated Royal Elastics were founded on the initial core promise that you don’t need laces in your sneaks to be a hipster.